Fourtheye Readers Top 12 Albums of 2018

I find the end of year best album lists quite interesting, as it quite often gives a good insight into music I haven’t heard before, and a general feel for what is considered “good” music. This year we had a bunch of votes from our Fourtheye readers, in order to establish what was “good” for 2018. No doubt some of you will think this is a great list, while others will laugh at the poor taste displayed by us all.

Personally, I think the list is a good one – I suspect there will be a few shared with my own top 10 (which I’ll publish tomorrow) and there’s no albums that stand out as being terrible (though one of the bands I personally find greatly overrated).

One theme of this years voting was the variance in the list. The voting was pretty level, with the number one album being the only one to gather a sizable number of votes. In fact about half the nominations only gathered a single vote. A list of all the albums that got more than one vote can be found in the forum.

For your listening pleasure, here’s a link to a Spotify playlist

Eat The Elephant – A Perfect Circle

I doubt anyone will be surprised to read that Eat The Elephant was the most popular album of 2018, just as I suspect no one will be surprised to see Tool’s new album top next years poll (hopefully). What may surprise you is that while it gathered almost twice as many votes as the second place, it didn’t really dominate numbers wise with only about 25% of voters choosing it. I think it’s a great album by the way, and very much deserving of a spot in the top 12.

Prequelle – Ghost

Did I mention that I find one of the bands on this list hugely overrated? I find these guys pretty bland an uninteresting, but a bunch of you disagree.

The Sciences – Sleep

Stoner metal pioneers Sleep haven’t released an album in quite some time, and this latest was critically acclaimed by many in the music industry, as well as our Fourtheye readers. Personally, I thought it was a pretty decent album, but doesn’t really stack up against Dopesmoker.

Bad Witch – Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails are a band that never seem to get old for Fourtheye readers. Bad Witch was a relatively lo-fi and fuzzy album, and tries to capture a slightly different mood to their other recent releases. It’s certainly an album that has it’s moments, but for me probably not high in my list if NIN albums.

Ordinary Corrupt Human Love – Deafheaven

These “hipsters” seem to cope a bit of flak for daring to push black metal in interesting directions. The fact is though, they seem to be getting better with each release, and probably not coincidentally, less and less cvlt. A beautiful album that is definitely worth a listen!

Rainier Fog – Alice In Chains

90s stalwarts Alice In Chains are another band along with NIN that are popular with Tool fans. No real surprises there, though I expect many are still split on the direction of the band since Layne passed away. After releasing what I though was a bit of a dud a couple of years ago, Jerry & co. have come back with a very strong release, one that I personally think is their strongest on the post-Layne era.

Automata I & II – Between The Buried & Me

Between the Buried & Me released Automata this year in two parts, and for the purposes of this poll I’ve elected to bundle them together. Which part is the best? Probably II, but both albums from these prog metal veterans are well worth your time.

Our Raw Heart – Yob

After a life threatening illness, Yob guitarist Mike Scheidt wrote the bands latest opus – Our Raw Heart. It doesn’t deviate far from their well established doom metal sound, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This album topped many top 10 metal lists for 2018, so no real surprise to see it here as well.

You Won’t Get What You Want – Daughters

Daughters were a relatively unknown band when they broke up a few years ago, but having reformed and created a great comeback album, all of a sudden they’re the ducks nuts! No arguments from me though – I’m one of the few who thought they were good back in the day, so very happy to see them up and about again!

Book of Bad Decisions – Clutch

Clutch may make bad decisions, but they rarely make bad albums! One of the best live bands going around, they once more deliver with a collection of catch and quirky rock tunes.

Sonder – TesseracT

Djent is a dirty word to some, and hence many will never listen to TesseracTs excellent work. To call them djent is underselling it (though they certainly do use aspects of that sub-genre) – their real beauty is how they weave this into some excellent progressive metal.

Year of the Snitch – Death Grips

Another band in the “love them or hate them” gallery. This abrasive experimental hip hop act has released an album which features Tool‘s Justin Chancellor on one track. The rest of the album is pretty good to, but probably not for everyone!